Last time we learned that the Bible describes people alarmingly similar to zombies. Today AMBrewster outlines the zombie’s problem which lays the foundation for Christian parents to help their children find God’s cure

Episode Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Welcome back to our “Parenting a Zombie” series. ​

Today we’re going to talk about the zombie’s problem. God is going to lay it out very clearly, and we should be able to use this information as a diagnostic tool to help determine if our children are engaging in zombie behavior.

But before we do that, I was to share with you another 5-star review we recently received from someone I met in Dallas.

Jtzsp wrote, “This podcast is a blessing. Truth.Love.Parent. is solid, biblical counsel for every parent who strives to better raise their children to know and love God. I’ve listened to most episodes, some even a few times over. Thank you for your ministry! You help fill a gap for those of us who need the extra godly exhortation and encouragement to intentionally parent to God’s glory.”

That’s exactly what we want to do. We want to be a help and encourage parents as we all learn to be the parents God called and created us to be.

It was so nice spending time with you in Dallas, and I pray our paths will one day cross again.

If TLP has been a blessing to you and you’d like to leave us a rating, review, or recommendation, you can go to iTunes, Facebook, or our website, TruthLoveParent.com to learn more.

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Okay, if you didn’t listen to our last episode which dealt with what the Bible says about zombies, you should really check it out first so we’re going into this with the right foundation.

Hopefully, you’ll find that the resemblance between the biblical fool and the mythical zombie is startling enough to change our perspective of what it means to be foolish.

Zombie behavior is literally bound up in our children’s hearts. We need to see it for what it is, understand it, and learn to address it.

So, if you’re returning, let’s dive into understanding what the zombie’s problem is.

Topic

First, let’s remember from last time that fools and zombies have a lot in common because . . .

Their minds don’t work.

They focus on only one thing: satisfying their desires.

Intelligent people who meet them try to kill them, lock them up, or run from them.

They will suffer great destruction to get what they want.

And neither the zombie nor the fool ever seem to learn.

And today I want to focus primarily on the first of those. What do I mean by saying the fool’s mind doesn’t work?

Let’s start by considering what I mean by the “mind.”

First, it’s important to acknowledge that humans are made up of two parts that come together and create a third.

In Genesis 2:8 we read, “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Here we see God forming Adam’s body and then breathing into that body “the breath of life.” The word translated “breath” is very similar to the Greek concept in that it can refer to breath but it can also refer to a spirit.

And at the end we read that these two ingredients (body and spirit) created a “living creature.” The KJV renders that last part as, “a living soul.”

I don’t want to take too much time with this, but here we learn that you and your kids have two parts, you have a body and a spirit, and when those two combine they create a soul. A body that is bereft of its spirit is not a soul, it’s just a body, and a spirit is not the same as a soul. The spirit requires being connected to a body to be a soul.

So, if there are only two basic parts of humanity, the body and the spirit, then we need to identify where our mind is. Is the mind a biological organ or a spiritual reality?

It’s true we have brains, but is the brain the same as the mind?

I believe the short and sweet answer is not really. Neither psychologists nor psychiatrists truly understand the mind. To that point, we don’t understand the biological brain as it is.

This is important to understand because fictional zombies are presented as biological organisms who’s brains are infected.

But God doesn’t call the fool braindead; He uses a very different image.

So, with this foundation, let’s consider the fact that . . .

1. God says the fool functions as if he had no mind.

Here are four biblical illustrations of this point.

A. The Zombie enjoys that which destroys him. That’s not smart at all.

In Proverbs 15:21 we read, “Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense.”

Let’s pick this verse apart because I have a feeling that most of us don’t appreciate the original language when it talks about “folly” and “sense.”

Folly can refer to a lack of good sense or normal prudence and foresight, criminally or tragically foolish actions or conduct, evil, wickedness; especially lewd behavior, a foolish act or idea, and an excessively costly or unprofitable undertaking.

There is nothing redeeming or valuable about folly. Folly isn’t an accident, a simple problem, or an “oops.”

Folly is evil, unprofitable, and tragic.

And God says that folly is a joy to this individual because they lack sense.

The word “lacks” means being completely destitute. It’s not having just a little, it’s possessing absolutely nothing. God says the fool has zero sense. But sense is not referring to our understanding of “common sense.”

This word can refer to the feelings, will, and even the intellect. Most of the time it’s translated “heart,” “mind,” or “sense.”

This is the same concept with which we opened. It’s not that fools don’t have a brain, God says that the fool acts like they don’t have a mind.

Why does God say that? In addition to enjoying folly . . .

B. The Zombie doesn’t understand what is truly valuable.

Proverbs 17:16 asks the question, “Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?”

Like Jack who would sell his cow for a couple beans, the fool will waste his money because he doesn’t understand what’s valuable.

Proverbs 21:20 says, “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.”

For those of you with older children, can you think of some examples of things on which your kids have wasted their money?

So, the fool lacks sense because he enjoys those things that will destroy him and doesn’t understand what’s truly valuable, but . . .

C. The Zombie also hates that which is good for him.

Proverbs 23:9 warns, “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.”

The word “despise” can mean to utterly hate. The word “despise” can also mean to consider something to be insignificant. But what does the fool despise? He hates good thinking.

Can you imagine that?

He not only loves what will harm him, he hates what will help him. Also . . .

D. The Zombie can’t even glorify God when doing the most benign things.

Ecclesiastes 10:3, “Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.”

First, the fool functions as if he has no mind by enjoying those things which destroy him, not understanding what is truly valuable, hating what’s good for her, and being completely incapable of glorifying God while doing the simplest things.

But even if the fool acted like he had a mind . . .

2. The Zombie’s mind doesn’t have knowledge.

Proverbs 15:7 tells us, “The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools.”

The word “heart” here is the same as the word “sense” before. This is saying that the wise man possess knowledge, but the mind of the fool doesn’t have it.

Proverbs 1:22 asks, “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?”

The simple and the scoffers are two more specific words to describe fools.

And Proverbs 16:22 says, “The instruction of fools is folly.”

But the fool’s mind doesn’t not work simply because he lacks knowledge.

3. The Zombie hates understanding.

Now, we’re not going to take the time today to explain the difference between knowledge and understanding . We’re going to have a whole series in the near future all about that. For now we have to simply acknowledge that the fool hates understanding.

Proverbs 18:2 says, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

But the fool doesn’t just lack knowledge and hate understanding . . .

4. The Zombie hates wisdom.

Proverbs 1:7 reads, “Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes.”

Proverbs 23:9 tells us, “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.”

Proverbs 24:7 reads, “Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth.”

And Proverbs 28:26 says, “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool.”

But — believe it or not — things still get worse.

5. The Zombie hates the things of God.

Proverbs 14:9 tells us that, “Fools mock at the guilt offering.”

One of the most important acts of worship in the Jewish sacrificial system is a joke to the fool.

Proverbs 17:24, “The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.”

Proverbs 26:11, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”

The fool’s mind doesn’t work. He doesn’t have knowledge, he hates understanding, wisdom, and the things of God, the fool loves doing stupid, wicked things, but . . .

7. The Zombie also has messed up communication.

Proverbs 19:1, “Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.”

Proverbs 10:18, “Whoever utters slander is a fool.”

Proverbs 12:16, “The vexation of a fool is known at once.”

Proverbs 12:23, “The heart of fools proclaims folly.”

Proverbs 15:2, "The mouths of fools pour out folly.”

Proverbs 17:7, “Fine speech is not becoming to a fool”

Proverbs 18:7, “A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.”

Proverbs 20:3, “Every fool will be quarreling.”

Proverbs 26:7, “Like a lame man's legs, which hang useless, is a proverb in the mouth of fools.”

Proverbs 26:9, “Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.”

Proverbs 29:11, “A fool gives full vent to his spirit.”

Conclusion

My friends, today’s goal was to discuss the zombie’s problem. And perhaps you noticed many similarities between the biblical fool and you children.​

Next time we’re going to talk about the zombie’s diet. This will give us even more insight into our children’s minds.

But — before we end — what should we do with the mass of information we read today?

I believe the first step is to live with our children according to knowledge. It doesn’t matter how good an athlete or student or worker your child is, if they’re exercising zombie behavior, if they’re mindlessly staggering through life with the sole intent to satiating their own pleasure, then we need to acknowledge the zombie behavior.

Some kids slow turn into spiritual zombies over a period of months or years. We need to see the sprigs of foolishness that we already know are there and work to weed them out of our children’s hearts lest they grow up and choke out our kids’ sense.

I was a fool for most of my life. Well — to be honest — I often still am. But when I was a young person I was a high-functioning zombie. I could converse with and impress most people. I was a good student, a hard-worker, and a fun person to be around. But most of those traits were simply I mindlessly trying too satisfy myself by myself for myself.

Though I enjoyed education, I didn’t value the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of God. And for me — like with most of your kids — my communication was one of the key ways my parents could tell I was a zombie.

When I wasn’t being a consummate communicator and jovial, all-around intelligent and good guy, I was critical, harsh, unkind, impatient, angry, unloving, and arrogant.

Praise God that my parents could spot my zombie behavior and often tried to lead me to the cure.

And that’s what I want for you and you kids.

So please share this episode with your friends. Lord willing, we’ll all learn how to help our zombies together.

As always, our episode notes are linked below, and I want to encourage you to go over to TruthLoveParent.com and get connected to our various social media outlets. We’re all about pointing you to plenty of resources for your parenting.

I know that we didn’t offer a ton of practical help to address the problem with our children, but we are seeing vital biblical data that should help us know and understand our children much better.